Trapped in My Mind
by Painting the Roses Blue
Summary: Co-written with "what happens in my Imagination". The story's pretty dark. "Kat-rina ! Your insanity is showing!"


**a/n: this was written in a roleplay between "what happens in my Imagination" (aka. my best friend Carly) and I. Don't blame me for anything that goes wrong. I have no beta-reader. Carly IS my beta-reader.**

**Disclaimer: Well, I own Hunter, Akuma no Ou-sama, Isley, um . . . Ayumu . . .**

**Disclaimer: Carly owns Katrina, Hayla and Ally**

**Carly's a/n: Katrina, Hayla and Ally are my characters. ps-Katrina does not reflect my own mind, I just have a very vivid imagination-.**

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Katrina Newgate frowned slightly as she heard tapping at her wall. She lifted her gaze to glare at the stark white obstacle in her way. She'd tried breaking through it, but she couldn't. Perhaps it was reinforced by magic, or perhaps it was just made of so many layers that it was too strong even for her.

"Katrina-sama? That's you, ne?"

Katrina rolled her eyes at the sound of her self-proclaimed best friend, Hunter Forrest.

"Hai, it is, Hunter," she answered.

"Good~! I was so worried you might be someone else in the Detention Block! Like that weird guy Masaru-san or someone! You don't _sound_ like Masaru though. If anything I'd name you . . . Nothing. Because you would hurt me if I named you anything other than 'Katrina-sama'."

"Are you done?"

"Hai."

"Good, Hunter."

"Thank you, Katrina-sama."

"I wasn't really—"

"Huh? What're you talking about, Katrina-sama?"

Katrina sighed. "Nothing, Hunter."

Hunter only grinned in response. "'Kay!"

"Remind me why I'm friends with you again?" Katrina prompted, frowning at the bubbly brunette girl.

". . . I'm not so sure, myself," Hunter replied, shrugging, a light smile on her face.

Katrina carried on as if Hunter hadn't spoken, "Well, I need _someone_ to stop me when I switch."

"I don't really 'stop you', per se," Hunter said, frowning and looking slightly guilty. "I run away for a while until you finish bathing in the blood of innocents."

"It does do wonders for my skin," Katrina allowed.

"You don't look a day over eighteen!" Hunter agreed, her grin returning as if it'd never left.

Katrina's eyes flared dangerously, looking almost red in the fluorescent lights. "Oh really? Well, there's an obvious reason for that, isn't there, Hunter? Because some of us change; grow older. But no! Not me! I'm stuck here, in this body, as my mind slowly falls apart!" Katrina was now standing, towering over her short friend.

"Katrina." Hunter's voice was small, quiet, afraid. "You're yelling again." She added, in an even quieter voice, "It's scaring me."

"Shut it! Where's my lighter?"

"IIE." Hunter gained back enough of her confidence to yell back at her friend. Not that it mattered. When they'd left Katrina in this room, they'd made sure to confiscate all of her lighters. "IIE LIGHTER."

Katrina took a few steadying breaths. ". . . it's okay. I'm fine now. I think. You should be more careful, Hunter! You know what sets me off!"

Hunter cringed slightly. "I'm sorry, Katrina-sama."

"You should be. There's a family of five right next door to me. They could be my next puppets."

"Family?" Hunter's eyes widened in panic. "Children?" she asked, to confirm.

"Yes, two young girls. They would make beautiful dolls." She paused for a second before adding, "With slight alterations, of course."

"You live next door to innocent children? Iie! We'll be moving you, then! Or the family! Anyway, no, we're in the Detention Block of the Akerman Centre."

Katrina rolled her eyes and fell back onto her bed. "Just not back to the asylum."

Hunter gave Katrina a deadpan look. "You'd just escape again," she pointed out.

"They _let_ me out. I stayed perfectly still for eight months."

"You _killed_ the guards!"

"Did I hit them _that_ hard? I thought I just knocked them out."

"Nope. Severe brain trauma. They died a few days ago in hospital."

"Well, if the doctors had let me see them, they wouldn't be dead, would they?" Katrina shrugged.

"Iie, they'd probably still be dead. You were really angry a few days ago."

Someone Katrina didn't believe 'really angry' was on par with 'psychotic with homicidal tenancies'.

"Was I?" she asked. "My mind's so messed up it put all of my memories into a safe box and it won't let me see them. What happened?"

"You, um, hit me." Her arm automatically curled around her abdomen, as if to either protect it or keep it from Katrina's view, Katrina assumed that it meant this is where she'd hurt her. "And you hurt Hayla a little bit, and she went off for a sulk. And we're all good now. No one died this time – other than those guards – so everyone's just glad you're okay."

"Is Hayla okay?"

"She did a lot of bleeding, but Ayumu fixed her up a bit and so did Hikaru and now she's okay. We're all okay."

"And Ally? Is she okay?"

"Yup. We hid her, just like you asked after you recovered from one of your first rages," Hunter assured her.

"Oh thank God. I was wondering why I couldn't leave this room. Hayla's doing I presume?"

"Yeah. She wouldn't let anyone in just in case you hadn't recovered," Hunter said, her lips twisting in amusement.

"Good. I think I'm not fully back yet, I'm still in the Puppeteer's mind a bit."

"Should I leave?"

"No, you can stay. I don't have any equipment with me anyway. Not that I need any . . . oops, sorry, as I told you before, not completely back to Katrina."

"It's fine. I'll leave if you start to go . . . insane."

"Insane?" Katrina gave her a wry smirk. "I'm _always_ insane."

"Like Puppeteer-insane. I like Katrina-sama-insane," Hunter told her, with a smile.

"Yes, Puppeteer isn't good."

"She – does the Puppeteer even _have_ a mental gender? – _can_ be good. But being insane isn't brilliant for good people."

"I'm not good . . ."

"Is it still you talking, Katrina-sama? 'Cos you're good. You're the good . . . est?"—Hunter frowned—"person I know."

"I'm not good," Katrina growled. "But by saying that, I've just proved that I'm sane enough again."

"You _are_ good," Hunter persisted. "Saved my life, remember?"

"Yes, just about," Katrina said. "But you only see the good side of me, Hunter, and you refuse to notice the other side. The large, sinister, insane part of me that everyone else sees."

"How boring," Hunter said, rolling her eyes. "They should just stop judging you. I'd give you a hug right now if I thought you'd like me invading your personal space but Isley's been teaching me all about personal boundaries."

"Finally."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hunter pouted.

"Nothing, Hunter."

Hunter began to grin. "So, how much do you remember?"

"Not a lot."

"D'ya want me to fill you in?" Hunter flopped onto the bed next to Katrina and hugged the pillow close to her knees.

"Please."

"So, where does your memory blank?"

"Um . . ." Katrina frowned slightly. "I'm standing in front of my puppets. They're hanging from the ceiling by their hair. It's all females. There's a knock at the door . . . and that's where I blank out."

"Oh, that was me!" Hunter seemed enthusiastic. Then, suddenly a dark look covered over her eyes. "Um, you hit me around a little bit before I got into the shadows and then Hayla tried to sedate you and it didn't really work and you knocked _her_ around and Ayumu got angry and grabbed her and got her out of there and Isley made you sleepy and then you fell asleep."

"For how long did I sleep?"

"A few days, I think. Isley was worried about waking you again while Hayla and I were recovering."

"What did Isley do you me? You know I never sleep for more than four hours." Katrina looked down at her body warily.

"She just kept you asleep," Hunter said, shrugging. "Every time your brain got close to being rested, she made you tired. It was the closest we could get to what Isley called a 'medically-induced coma'. We couldn't actually do that because she said your body would just reject any drugs or medicine."

"And then you brought me here to this old flat building, and locked me in this room, right?"

"I didn't. The others did. Like I said, the Detention Block of the Akerman Centre, underground. They wouldn't let me see you. I had to run away from the sick-bay to get here. They shouldn't know I'm here."

"Well then, '_got a secret, can you keep it? Well this one you'll save. Better lock it in your pocket, taking this one to the grave. If I show you, then I know you will tell what I said. 'Cause two can keep a secret if one of them is dead_'."

Katrina's eyes widened in fear. "Um, I guess you're reverting to the Puppeteer again, ne?"

"No, I'm just singing 'Secret'."

"I just told you, basically, a secret and then you start singing about how two can't keep a secret if one of them is dead. And you can't die."

"Well, I can, but that's a secret between you and me."

Hunter laughed nervously. "Yeah . . . should I leave?"

"Please stay. It's not like I can go anywhere."

"Um, yeah, you kind of could. These walls are pretty thin and if I got past Hayla's security then you could too and Hayla's still recovering and all of your other attempts were predicted but if you try and escape now you could probably do it and—I'll shut up now."

"I'm fine now, really."

"If you're sure."

"Yes, I think so."

Hunter smiled. "I wish I could hug you."

"But you won't."

"Iie, iie!" Hunter recoiled from Katrina. "You would hurt me!"

"Yes, yes I would."

"I know."

Katrina sighed. "So what now?"

"Um, well, I could try and sneak you out if you feel up to it. I want to go see 'the Avengers' again. I think Isley's getting fed up of taking me to see it. She's been my 'personal bodyguard' for _days _now and we're been to see 'the Avengers' movie together about eight times now."

"I thought you said you'd been in the sick-bay."

"Someone at the Akerman Centre pirated it. We've been mostly watching it in the sick-bay but yesterday I felt up to watching it in cinema so Isley took me! Three times! So, you feel up to it?"

Katrina shook her head. "No. I think I should stay here. I'm in here for other peoples' safety, and we should keep it that way?"

"Since when did you care?" It didn't come out harsh, just curious.

"Since my mind started falling to pieces, and the Puppeteer emerged."

"Yeah, but you've killed before. Even after the Puppeteer. And I've seen it. You pass it off, say that the Puppeteer did it . . . but I've seen it. You kill too. And you're still a good person, don't get me wrong, but . . . why hide it?"

"Because I'm just a noble. I was never meant for this."

"You aren't 'just' anything, Katrina-sama."

"What do you mean?"

"You are the strong, most amazing, let-me-think-of-some-more-adjectives-but-I-can't-because-you're-too-awesome-and-blinding-me-with-badassery person I know."

"But I was never supposed to be there to save you. I should have listened to my father and I should have chosen a suitor to marry."

"There's a very good reason your parents died and you survived. There's a very good reason why you have your power. There is a very good reason for everything."

"Damn . . . if only I had just chosen a suitor and made my father happy. He had made a deal with Albert. More like a bet, really. If I got married, my father would have raised Albert's pay by fifty percent."

"...then I'd be dead."

"I would be dead too. At my time, I wouldn't live past the age of forty."

"I'd have died at fourteen. Huh. Weird though. Different timeline. But hey, that's what parallel universes exist for, ne?"

Katrina murmured, "Piece of thought," under her breath.

Hunter lay back on the bed and gazed at the roof.

"No!"

"Huh?" Hunter jerked up from her lying position.

"No! No! No! No!"

"What's wrong?"

Katrina began tugging at her hair, pulling some of the strands out (only for, a few seconds later, to be replaced), "Nononononono!"

Hunter eased Katrina's grip as much as she could (which wasn't very much) and took Katrina's clenched fist in her hands. "Katrina-sama, nothing's gonna harm you."

Katrina ripped out more handfuls of hair.

Hunter changed tactics. She thought back to what Katrina had said her mother used to sing her, as a lullaby. "'_The King and his men stole the Queen from her bed . . ._'"

"SHUT IT!" Katrina pushed Hunter away. "No! No! No! Not now!"

"'_...and bound her in her bones..._'"

Katrina ripped out another chunk of hair. "Not now! Why now? SHUT IT, HUNTER!"

"Iie! We're a family!"

Katrina grabbed Hunter's throat and pushed her against a wall.

"'_...the seas be ours, and by the powers..._'" Parts of Hunter's body began to fade into the shadow by the wall.

Katrina thumped her fist into the wall where Hunter had been standing. "Shut up!"

"'_...where we will...we'll row..._'"

"No! No! No! Why now? Why does it have to be now?"

"'_...yo-ho...haul together..._'"

Katrina evened out her breathing and narrowed her eyes. "Shut up, Hunter! I need to think."

". . . bye . . ."

'_That wasn't nice, Katrina._'

"Yes, Kathrine, I know." Katrina sighed and cracked her knuckles.

'_Katrina, you know you're in here for your own good, you didn't need me to tell you that_.'

"Yes, but did you really have to replay the memory?"

There was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Katrina called.

'_I'll stay quiet for now . . ._' Kathrine whispered inside Katrina's head.

"It's Isley," the familiar voice called through the wall. "Have you seen Hunter? She's missing from the sick-bay. I thought I felt her energy signals around here."

'_Got a secret, can you keep it?_'

"Shut it, Kathrine! I thought you said you would be quiet!"

"I can hear and feel that this is the wrong time," Isley murmured through the door again. "I'll be back. Yell or flare your emotions if you find Hunter."

"Thank you." Katrina began to pace. "Kathrine! You said you would be quiet!"

'_I know, but I seemed to have picked up your habit of lying..._'

"Stop arguing with yourself, Katrina."

Katrina turned to see someone in the doorway. He had blue-black hair that recently looked cut and a faint black glow was resonating from his body.

"I'm not!"

"I see no one else in the room," the male continued. "I could be wrong, but I'm going to assume insanity."

"Of course."

'_Don't just agree..._'

"Shut it, Kathrine. You're just making things worse right now."

"More arguing."

'_Katrina, I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone for now..._'

Katrina sighed. "Thank you, Kathrine."

"You speak to your dead sister?"

"I don't know how it happened. As soon as I killed her, she appeared in my head," Katrina admitted.

"Schizophrenic? It would make sense. A voice in your head, split personalities."

"No," Katrina replied. "Her mind is in my mind."

"I believe you are insane. Well, I know that anyway, but thanks for the extra proof," the stranger continued.

"Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm hurt, Katrina, honestly, I am. Although, the last time we met, you were completely insane. They call me Akuma no Ou-sama. I have no idea what it means and what language it is but apparently it's a high respect. If it's an insult, then who cares? It's a name; I've probably been called worse."

"Oh, you're one of the Akumas."

"The highest of them all. I'm the king."

"Whose body have you taken? Or do you have your own body this time? I hear you demons enjoy hosting others' bodies."

"This is my real body. Or close enough. My real one could give a human a heart attack, either from fright or . . ." He trailed off, smirking. "Anyway, this is as mortal as my body gets. If you were interested in any sort of relationship or you were mentally stable in any respect, I would flirt with you."

"But I'm not. Especially with my sister in my head."

"Yes, that _would_ be weird. I don't want your sister making funny comments that I can't hear."

"Kathrine usually minds her own business, talking to people that I've killed. She's the only that can talk to me in here." She tapped her temple.

"How boring. I like conversing with the people I've slain. It beats sitting alone, if I can converse in my mind."

"What are you doing here anyway?"

"Hunter escaped from the sick bay. Everybody is on red alert. Plus, I like speaking to a fellow . . . murderer. Makes me feel as if I belong." He laughed.

"What happened to Hun—oh, yeah, I happened to Hunter."

"She was here?"

"No, earlier, before I was even here."

Ou-sama shrugged. "Hayla's still not willing to visit. I think you frightened her a little bit. Well, no, you didn't, she's equally insane, but her ribs are still healing."

"I broke her ribs?"

"Almost pierced a lung. She healed pretty quickly. Magic or some shit. I'm not sure, I wasn't listening."

"What did I do to her?"

"Punched her in the ribs a few times. Hunter was lucky . . . I suppose. She only got choked a little before we got her to safety. They were both unconscious when they were brought in."

"And Ally is safe, correct?"

"We didn't take her with us. We hid her. Like we always do when you got insane." Ou-sama's attention turned to his nails, which were surprisingly neat. "She looks tasty though. If I wanted to, I could eat her. I am awfully hungry, you know."

"She would be just a snack. Me? I would last much longer. I just don't want you hurting Ally."

"Yeah, but you're annoying with your mental illnesses and past trauma and possible PTSD. You _want_ death."

"Of course I want death."

"Foolish human."

"I'm barely human anymore."

"You are barely _anything_ these days."

"Exactly."

"Just a shell of what was once a human being."

"Doomed to live forever," Katrina added, with a smirk.

"And you will. Whilst everything around you will wither and die. The Eternal Forest in a Dying World."

"But I know how to kill myself. I just need to bring myself to do it."

"You think I'm going to let such entertainment die? I will deny you death."

"I'm entertainment?"

"Of course."

"How? Do you enjoy my insanity?"

"I enjoy watching you struggle with your mental health. You will live as long as me so it's entertainment that never ends."

"Well, you _are_ a demon . . ."

"The king, honey."

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**a/n: If anything confuses you, which it might, just PM myself or "what happens in my Imagination" and we'll be happy to answer your questions. :)**


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